Chapter News
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) would like to welcome Shawnna Deresch, Carol Gyzander, and Rosemary Thorne as its new Chapter Program Managers. Although they share responsibilities across the board, Shawnna and Carol will focus on the U.S. Chapters, while Rosemary will focus on our international Chapters.
They have already been doing amazing things with the program, and we love working with them.
Thank you, Shawnna, Carol, & Rosemary!
The HWA is a worldwide organization with more than 1500 members around the globe. We encourage local chapters, which provide important face-to-face interaction as well as a wide range of possible local activities, everything from speaking at high schools to organizing book signings to hosting booths at book fairs. If you have any questions about joining or forming a chapter, please email us at chapters@horror.org
Shawnna Deresch
She has been crafting scary stories since she could first talk. Her love of horror began when she was a child watching horror movies with her father and now as an adult is obsessed with anything horror related. She’s a lover of paranormal investigations and loves checking out cemeteries and old buildings.
She travels extensively and splits her time between the Chicagoland area and anywhere down south where the temps don’t go below 80 degrees. She lives with her three children, two black rescue cats and one blue-eyed puppy in a condo near the beach of a big city.
She is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and is the Chairperson of the Chicagoland Chapter of the HWA. Her recent short story, Little Sally Ann, appears in Kandisha Press Women of Horror Anthology Volume 3 which is out now. You can find her on her website: www.shawnnaderesch.com; Twitter: @shawnnaderesch, Instagram: @shawnna_deresch_author or on the HWA Chicagoland Chapter website: www.HWAChicago.org or on Twitter: @ChicagoHWA.
Carol Gyzander
She writes and edits horror, suspense, dark fiction, and science fiction stories in the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City, with her black cat firmly Velcroed to her side.
Her stories are in over a dozen anthologies. Next is Under Twin Suns, the weird historical fiction anthology edited by James Chambers that explores the madness of Robert W. Chambers’ classic creation, “The King in Yellow. Upcoming from Hippocampus Press. As one of the founders of Writerpunk Press, she’s edited four anthologies of punk stories inspired by tales including classic horror and the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Carol is Co-Coordinator of the HWA NY Chapter and co-host of the HWA-NY Galactic Terrors reading series, which is broadcast online on the second Thursday of every month. More info on HWANY.org!
She’s a member of HWA, MWA, SinC and HNS. Find her at CarolGyzander.com or on Twitter @CarolGyzander
Blanca del Moral aka Rosemary Thorne
I’m a 53 y-o journalist who turned into a Web Master who turned into an Online Marketing Specialist who turned into an ESL tutor, position that I’m currently deploying. Throughout all these years and subsequent professional metamorphosis, I’ve managed to keep my passion for horror both researching and writing. In order to keep it real, I decided to become a HWA member in May 2019.
In the infamous year of 2020 I actually got to publish a short essay in Spanish on the influence of Elizabeth Báthory in both literature & movies, and I am currently looking for a publisher for my second novel, “The 12 grapes covenant”, which is in Spanish too.
I’m a single mother of a 24 y-o writer, bilingual too, and at the moment we are living in Madrid, Spain.
